A Perfect Day!

Posted on August 19, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

If there’s such a thing as a perfect day, today might have been it. One aspect of my time here that I really haven’t talked about yet is the other volunteers. People are here from all over the world, and getting to know them has been a lot of fun. I’m constantly amazed by how well we can relate to one another even when we come from such different places. I also feel like I’ve known them all for much longer than 5 days… Just seeing that number is kind of throwing me off. But when you live and work together, friendships develop much faster than in normal life, and the group dynamic right now is incredibly good.

A few people left this week, but I want to briefly mention the ones who are sticking around so that I can refer to them by name. Two volunteers were already in the house when we got there, Avy (Hong Kong) and Fernanda (Mexico). They both played big roles in getting the summer school going and are awesome with the kids. Amber (Belgium), Maria (Portugal), and Nicolas (France) started at the same time as I did, and they all work at the farm with me in the mornings. Nicolas and I are teaching buddies, and Maria and I have been running together. Amber is helping at the medical clinic.

They’re all absolutely hilarious, and we also work well together which is a huge blessing. People share ideas and help each other, and we can be far more effective in helping the kids because of that.

Anyway, back to business. At the farm this morning, Nicolas showed us how to plant some seeds that he brought from France. We spent a couple hours making “nests” for the seeds- digging a hole and loosening the dirt inside of it to make it easier for the new plants to break through and grow roots. It wasn’t as labor intensive as the other days which was a welcome break.

Then, school went so well!! We’ve been working on coming up with more fun ways of teaching the kids. We did the hokey pokey to help teach them about nouns, adjectives, and verbs in English class and did some activities with shapes in Math. The kids were so good and I think they had fun and learned a thing or two.

After class, Maria had face paint that she used to give them some war paint, and they absolutely loved it. Seeing them get excited about such “little” things definitely makes you stop and think. Something may seem small to you, but you don’t know how it looks to someone else. In my mind, it was so simple, but for those kids, that was a big thing. It makes me rethink my previous ideas about not being able to make a real difference in such a small time. I think that you have to live as if your every action will have some lasting impact on the people around you, and whether it’s positive or negative is up to you.

Some of the kids showing off their war paint

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, watching the Frankadua soccer team play against a neighboring town, and after dark, having a farewell bonfire for the volunteers who are leaving this weekend. A bunch of the kids and locals came too, and the night was filled with Ghanaian music and dancing and good conversations.

This weekend, we’re headed to Cape Coast to do some touristing. I should go pack before it gets much later! So much for getting to bed early… (it’s almost midnight)

Juapong

Posted on August 17, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

The days here feel so incredibly long. When I think about working at the farm this morning, I’m blown away by the fact that that was today. I know it’s going to happen, but it’s hard to believe that 3 months are going to fly by when each day feels like a week. I think that it’s just because we do so much every day that it seems like it all shouldn’t be able to fit in 24 hours.

This morning at the farm, we helped to clear weeds in one of the fields by using hoes to slice the tops off. It was exhausting, but I was just happy that we weren’t using the machetes again so my hands have time to heal.

We also learned a little more about the locals who work at the farm. They also have farms of their own to take care of, so they spend hours working at the orphanage farm and then go home and rest by working at their farms too. I don’t know how they do it. An hour and a half each morning is more than enough for me.

School was rough. I’m still excited to work with the kids, but it’s so hard trying to reach a class with such diversity of skill levels. We did a writing exercise in English class, and some kids were great while others could barely put together a sentence. Where do we go from here? I find myself constantly trying to think of ways to engage them while also teaching them. I’m determined to figure this out.

We spent the afternoon at the market in Juapong, a town about 20 minutes south of Frankadua. It was great! We’re really not living in a tourist area, so practically everyone we encounter is Ghanaian. Going to the market made me feel like we’re really becoming part of the community, especially since, for the most part, no one gave us weird looks for being there. It’s nice to already feel that sense of belonging.

A couple of market shots. These aren’t great, so I’ll try to take better ones next time we go

I also experienced my first tro tro ride on the way to the market and back! A HUGE mode of transportation in Ghana is a bunch of privately owned minibuses that drive back and forth along set routes, called tro tros. They’ll pick you up from wherever along the route and will stop wherever you’re getting off. They can also get quite crowded… I’ve had multiple friends tell me about times when they had to hold random children on their laps due to the space. We got to the market for about 1.70 cedis each (the exchange rate to US is around 3.8:1). I still don’t totally understand how their routes work, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon enough.

Okay, I need to go to sleep ASAP. Tomorrow is going to be such a mess. So. Tired. I need to start sleeping more! Good night!!!

Machete Monday

Posted on August 16, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

(I know it’s Tuesday but let’s just pretend because Machete Tuesday isn’t catchy.)

WOOO!!! I survived my first day!! Both mentally AND physically (which are both things I was slightly concerned about). This morning was brutal though. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for at least a week now, and the 5AM wake up call was not exactly what I needed. We had to be ready to go to the farm by 5:30, so I pulled my stuff together, attempted to wash my face using a bucket, and inhaled a granola bar before Joe and John, two of the Ghanaians that run the farm, came by to pick us up.

The walk to the farm! This is what 5:45AM looks like

Some brief background info on the farm – it was started when they realized that one of the nearby orphanages never got fresh food. Now, half of the food is donated directly to the orphanage, and the other half is sold to buy seeds and fertilizer and other things required to keep the farm running.

The walk there was nice and gave us some time to wake up. It’s probably 15 minutes from the volunteer house, and part of it involves walking through water about 8” deep. I was happy to have rain boots (aka gum boots) to keep my feet dry. I had no idea what we were going to be doing, so when we got there and they handed each of us a machete, I was pretty pumped. We got to help clear one of the old corn fields to get it ready for a new planting by chopping the dead corn stalks at the base with the machetes. Believe me when I say that there’s nothing more satisfying than whacking a stalk and seeing it fall without even putting up a fight. Yay manual labor!

I wish I had gotten a before picture, but this is the field after we wreaked havoc

I felt quite accomplished by the time we finished clearing the field, but I didn’t even think about what the work would do to my hands. Talk about blisters! It’s okay… a couple days of sucking it up, and I’ll have the calluses I need to support my natural machete skills.

Once we finished at the farm, we headed back to the house for breakfast and to do last minute preparation for class. My teacher partner, Nicolas, and I were basically winging it for the first day just to get a reference of where the kids are skill-wise. We have P3 and P4 levels, and I think the kids are about 9-12 years old, maybe a bit younger. In English class, we had each of them introduce their partner to the group. For the rest of the time, we picked different letters of the alphabet and each kid wrote a word on the board that started with that letter.

I felt much more at ease in Math class. I put up some addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division questions and we gave the kids time to work on their own before coming back together to go over them. The biggest struggle was times tables, so we’re going to try to help them memorize those by the time school starts.

Just to give you an idea of the landscape here, this is a view of one of the houses/yards near where we live

We had the rest of the day after that to prepare for school tomorrow and relax. I went for a [slow and painful] run with one of the other girls and made some plans for classes. I’m feeling really excited and encouraged by the kids and our experience today. They’re all so well behaved and eager to learn! It makes me happy to teach them.

I also survived my first bucket shower experience. It really wasn’t as big of a deal as I expected. I can totally do this for three months, no problem. I feel like I’m living so sustainably now. There’s no running water for anything, and I only used about 2-3 gallons for my shower.

Anyway, it’s very late (almost 11PM) and I have another very early morning tomorrow. Hopefully it’s not another machete day! My hands need a change of pace.

Welcome to Ghana!

Posted on August 15, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

I made it! After about 19 hours of travelling, I’m in Ghana! My flight landed yesterday (Sunday) around 7:30PM, and everything since then has been a whirlwind. We took buses from the plane to the airport, went through temperature screening and got checked for yellow fever vaccinations, and finally through immigration and customs. That whole process took probably another hour, which is obviously EXACTLY what I was in the mood for after flying all day.

After that though, everything was great! All of the things I was worrying about went by without a hitch. My bag didn’t get lost, I connected with my ride at the airport, and I didn’t feel like too much of an idiot at any point! Okay now that I wrote that out, I feel kind of stupid that those were my measures for a successful first day. That’s typical though. Me worrying about all of these things that I can’t control.

Ice cream in a tube! Fan Ice is my new favorite thing.

I got picked up at the same time as three other volunteers, and we drove to VCO’s volunteer house in Accra (the capital of Ghana). The other volunteers had already arrived and were asleep by the time we got in, so we had a quick briefing by the staff and got SIM cards for our phones (I have data, so you can email me!). I didn’t even realize that I was hungry, but I absolutely demolished the dinner they had ready… anddd then I passed out.

This morning, we had orientation where we learned about the program guidelines, basic Ghanaian etiquette, and a few words in Twi. In Ghana, the official language is English. However, there are a ton of different local languages. Nine of them are “government recognized”, but in reality, there are far more than that. We learned some Twi because it’s most widely spoken in the regions where we’ll generally be. Let me just say that the lesson could have gone better… it is NOT easy. And just to give you an idea of the language chaos, Twi will definitely be useful, but the village where I’m placed speaks a different language, Ewe. So that’s good. Two more languages to attempt to learn.

My bed for the next 3 months, mosquito net and all (I’m the bottom bunk)

Orientation was finished before 11AM, and the next step was loading up the van to drive out to Frankadua, my new home for at least 6 weeks. The van ride was about 3 hours, and I got my first real look at Ghana (it was dark by the time we left the airport yesterday).

Here are some first impressions:
1. Taxi drivers are the same no matter where you are in the world. Kind of crazy and love their car horns.
2. You couldn’t pay me to drive a car here. There will be long stretches of nicely paved road that are rudely interrupted by a HUGE (canyon-like) pothole, and people drive wherever they need to in order to avoid it (towards incoming traffic, off the road, etc).
3. People can seriously balance anything on their heads. It’s awesome. I must learn.

Anyway, it’s getting late and I’m losing steam. I need to get ready for tomorrow because not only am I going to help out at the farm tomorrow morning (at 5:30…), but they also needed more people to help out at the summer school that some volunteers started a few weeks ago. It’s pretty cool because it’s totally voluntary, but the kids are so excited to learn that it’s really taken off.

Since I can’t say no when someone asks me to help with something, I’m getting thrown into my first teaching experience tomorrow. No big deal. Just leading a class with one other person who’s never taught before. Eek! Talk about things that scare me… Deep breath. I got this.

And We’re Off!

Posted on August 13, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

I know this might sound weird, but even though I’m sitting at the Philly airport right now, it still hasn’t completely registered that this is actually happening. That’s not to say that I’m not ready or not excited. Trust me, I am! But have you ever planned something for over a year?

When you start out the planning, it seems so far off that you can easily

Ready to go! Be impressed by how much stuff I managed to cram into my bags.

pretend it’s not real. There’s still plenty of time for you to panic and bail. You’re living two separate lives in your head – the one where you stay (we’ll call her “Stay” Lara), and the one where you go (“Go” Lara). Even at 6 months out, you can kind of ignore the truth. “Oh it’s still 6 months away now. I have nothing but time.”

Then that turns to 3 months and you’re doing things like confirming your plans and sitting at your computer with your pointer hovering over the “Buy Tickets” button on the airline website thinking, “So am I really going to do this? After you click that button, it’s happening whether you’re ready or not.” But the “Go” Lara takes over and you do it. That trauma quickly passes, allowing you to go back to the blissfully normal life of “Stay” Lara.

A month and a half out, you quit your job, and as you pull your boss aside, you realize that this is REALLY it. There’s no turning back now. There will only be one Lara in your head after this. But “Stay” Lara is a stubborn one, and after it’s over, life goes back to normal and there’s still another month of work where you can pretend that nothing is changing.

Three weeks and you start telling everyone and then it seems like you have to believe it, but I am apparently a professional at leading two separate lives in my head. “Stay” Lara is just more convincing and believable.

And now here I am, sitting in the airport. I am definitely “Go” Lara, but “Stay” Lara is putting up a fight. I’m sure it’ll all become real once I’m on a plane flying over the Atlantic… right?

Anyway, I promise I’m [mostly] mentally stable right now. Just overwhelmed. Be in Accra in 17 hours! Ready or not 🙂

Introduction

Posted on August 10, 2016April 16, 2019 by Lark

Welcome to my blog! I am going to be documenting my yearlong adventure around the world, and I think it will be helpful to start off by catching you up on the who/what/where/when/why details of my trip.

Really, the first question that needs to be answered is why? Why am I doing this?

To put it simply, I feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing right now. I love experiencing new cultures and seeing how beneath the obvious differences, people are so similar no matter where you are. That’s where the interest started, and the thinking/planning process since then has been about a year and a half long. For each decision, I prayed and researched and listened and waited until I had that feeling of inner peace that makes you sure that it was the right one. It was a long process, but I’m excited about how the plans developed and how once I was on the right track, all of the details fell into place!

Now for the who/what/where/when…

I am doing four separate trips to four countries – Ghana, Peru, India, and Armenia. Below are the timeframes of when I’ll be in each, the organizations I’ll be working with and their descriptions of their missions/what they do, and links to their websites.

August – November 2016: Ghana – Volunteer Corps Organisation

“Volunteer Corps Organisation is dedicated to building a better world by improving the lives, living standards, education and health care of those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. Through affordable volunteer placements in Ghana, Volunteer Corps Organisation offers a unique opportunity for cultural immersion whilst enabling volunteers to share their skills and knowledge with local communities in order to promote self-sufficiency.”

January – March 2017: Peru – Esperanza de Ana [Facebook page]

“Esperanza de Ana provides services that bring guidance and emotional support to children and their families who are facing situations of conflict and personal trauma that put at risk the family unit and the functioning of the family.”

“Our passion is to strengthen families while offering a place of healing for the hearts and minds of each child and parent who has experienced trauma or is suffering crisis. Through the education center we focus on the integral development of each child while we work to encourage parents to value each child and discover their gifts.”

April – May 2017: India – Harvest Bridge

“Harvest Bridge is a network of trusted indigenous churches and missionaries, cooperating on church planting, pastor education, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and various other missionary and humanitarian programs.

We were founded and continue to grow with few worldly resources. The secret to our success is working through local churches and ministries in the countries where we serve. This leverages the passion, experience, and knowledge of local Christians and reduces the duplication of effort and resources.”

July – September/October 2017: Armenia – Birthright Armenia

“Birthright Armenia was founded … with the belief that it is every Armenian’s birthright to not only see Armenia, but also experience their homeland via an enriching, hands-on, life-changing experience.”

“Our mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland and Diasporan youth, by affording them an opportunity to be a part of Armenia’s daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through work, study and volunteer experiences, while developing life-long personal ties and a renewed sense of Armenian identity.”

There is just one more what to be answered, and that is what do I hope to accomplish with this trip?

I know that there’s only so much of a difference I can make with such short trips to each place. Real, sustainable change requires a much bigger investment of time and talents. Knowing that, my goal on this trip isn’t to change the world. Maybe I’ll make a lasting impact on one or two people, but even that isn’t a guarantee.

The only thing I can know for certain is that I will be changed, and I’m going to spend every day experiencing and absorbing as much as possible. I want to learn everything I can from the people and organizations I encounter. I want to live outside my comfort zone and eat at least one bug. JUST KIDDING I’m absolutely NOT eating any bugs. But I will eat new foods and say yes to things that scare me and maybe even get malaria. Most of all, I want to learn to trust in God and go enthusiastically towards the future He has planned for me, even without knowing all of the details.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

Well, that should about cover it! Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

Ready… set… time to go pack!